Catalunya : Ducati – Day OneDucati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi completed day one of the Catalan Grand Prix very much on the pace, with fourth and sixth fastest times at the challenging Catalunya circuit.

In hot, sunny conditions the pair

were just 0.4 and 0.5 seconds off the quickest times and can look forward to another day of good weather - in vivid contrast to last weekend's rain-lashed Italian GP practice sessions - in which to get the best out of the Desmosedici GP7 and its ever-improving Bridgestone tyres for Sunday's race.

CASEY STONER, 4th fastest, 1m 43.543s"It's a similar situation to what we were in at Mugello - we are fast enough but we've not got that little bit extra at the moment. This morning we weren't too bad but this afternoon we seemed to have gone in the wrong direction. We tested a lot of things - different front tyres, different rear tyres, different chassis set-ups, links and so on - and basically I think we made it a little too confusing, so we need to go back to what we had and then go off in a different direction. Same as every weekend we're looking for more traction and more turning in the long corners. We still need to improve the bike but the tyres aren't so bad and we've not been through the whole range yet, we've still got a couple more rears to try tomorrow."

LORIS CAPIROSSI, 6th fastest, 1m 43. 631s"This afternoon didn't go as well as this morning because the tyres that were available for the second session weren't as good as those we used in the first session. With the new tyre rules we don't always have enough of the better tyres to use in all sessions, so we had to use another tyre, that's why we weren't so fast this afternoon. Anyway, at least we know that we already have a good tyre for this track, and we still have one more to try tomorrow. I am using the standard spec engine here. Mostly we have been working mostly on the chassis, with promising results. I'm not so happy with my lap times or my position but I think we can look forward to improving tomorrow."
Ducati Corse